Category: Other

My Ranking Of The Gamera Franchise Part 1

Published December 5, 2022

With the announcement that a new Gamera project is in the works, I thought it might be interesting to do a ranking of all twelve Gamera films. This is quite exciting for me since I’ve recently become enamoured with tokusatsu but have been finding it difficult to get my hands on various important series and franchises. However, Gamera was the first tokusatsu franchise that I was able to watch in its entirety so it makes sense that my first ranking of tokusatsu be the Gamera films.

12. Gamera vs. Viras

If you’re familiar with the Gamera films then it might be a mild surprise to see Gamera vs. Viras ranked at the bottom but I can honestly say that, while watching the twelve Gamera films, Gamera vs. Viras was the only truly miserable experience I had during this franchise. Most of the film follows two young boys who are trapped on a spaceship who are insufferably irritating as they awkwardly provide humour and outwit these supposedly highly intelligent aliens. The worst crime that I think this film commits though is making the titular battle between Gamera and Viras so uninteresting. If I ever watch through the twelve Gamera films again, this’ll easily be the one I dread most.

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How I’ve Come To Love Anthology TV Series

Published November 21, 2022

It’s truly incredible how you can love something but, after a while, come to appreciate what came before. One of the great strengths of the modern era of television has been the greater focus on serialised storytelling and that’s something that I certainly appreciate since it has led to many of my favourite shows of all time. It’s interesting then that, over the course of the last few years, I’ve developed quite an appreciation for virtually the opposite, TV shows that tell a complete story over a single episode or even a season. Therefore, I thought it might be interesting to take a look at anthology TV series and how I’ve come to love them.

I should first start by explaining what an anthology TV series is to anyone who’s unfamiliar with the term. An anthology TV series is a show where the story and characters are self-contained between episodes or seasons while generally following a common theme or concept. They may have main cast members who play different characters each episode or season or may have nearly entirely different casts every episode/season. Now that I’ve covered what an anthology TV series is, it’s time to discuss how I came to love them.

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Why Manga Fans Should Know Of Shotaro Ishinomori

Published November 14, 2022

I’ve spoken about a few important mangaka on this blog, Osamu Tezuka and the Year 24 Group being the two most obvious examples, but another important figure in the manga industry that I’ve only touched on a few times is the legendary Shotaro Ishinomori. Despite contributing greatly to the medium of manga, Shotaro Ishinomori is a relatively unknown name here in the West. Therefore, I thought it might be interesting to take a look at who he is, some of his history and why manga fans should know of Shotaro Ishinomori.

Shotaro Ishinomori was born in Tome, Japan on January 25th, 1938 as Shotaro Onodera and later adopted the pen name Shotaro Ishinomori. He released his first manga in 1955 at the age of 17 and later became an assistant to Osamu Tezuka, the man whose work New Treasure Island had inspired the young Shotaro to become a mangaka. Over the course of his lifetime he produced an incredible amount of content, so much so that he has the Guinness World Record for most comics published by one author!

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Underrated Horror Films You Should Definitely Check Out

Published October 31, 2022

It’s that time of year again, Halloween, where my adoration of horror media feels more rewarded than normal. I’m expecting that a lot of people will be taking the opportunity to check out a wide variety of horror films during this day and I thought it would be interesting to share some examples of horror films that I consider to be underrated and would strongly recommend that people check out.

When I think of underrated horror films that people should check out, my first thought is a film that I watched pretty recently, American Mary. I didn’t know anything about the film before watching, which is what I usually prefer, and I was shocked with how much I adored the film. The main character, the titular Mary, is a medical student and is wonderfully portrayed by Katharine Isabelle who is charming, believable and very likable as she discovers her talent in extreme body modification. I will admit that the film isn’t perfect since the conclusion of the film is sudden and feels rushed but I loved the rest of the film so much that it still stands as one of the best horror films I’ve seen in recent years.

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The Ultimate Audio Easter Egg – The Wilhelm Scream

Published October 24, 2022

I was recently replaying Ori and the Blind Forest, an excellent Metroidvania game, and I used a stomp to cause an enemy to fall off the edge of a cliff. As it fell, a sound played that I was quite familiar with, the Wilhelm scream. I paused for a moment, processing what I had just heard and then burst out laughing. It was so unexpected that I couldn’t help but laugh. Being reminded of its existence, I thought it might be interesting to take a look at the ultimate audio Easter egg, the Wilhelm scream.

The Wilhelm scream is a stock sound effect that was originally included in the 1951 film “Distant Drums” but was named after its use in the 1953 film “The Charge at Feather River” where a character, named Private Wilhelm, gets hit by an arrow and screams. While it is not definitive, it is generally accepted that American songwriter Sheb Wooley provided the audio for the scream. Afterwards, it was used in a few other Warner Bros. films such as A Star is Born, Sergeant Rutledge and The Green Berets but it wasn’t until the 1970s that the Wilhelm scream truly rose to prominence.

Sheb Wooley is generally considered to have provided the Wilhelm scream.

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Why You Should Know About Animation Legend Max Fleischer

Published October 10, 2022

I’ve spoken about a couple of important American animators in the past that I feel are not as well known as they should be but, with regard to those, they are relatively recent animators who began to work in the 50s before later starting to direct films in the 70s and 80s. Today, I want to take a look at an animation legend who began working on animation in the very early 1900s, Max Fleischer, and why you should know about him.

To give a quick background to Max Fleischer before he started his animation career, he was born on July 19th, 1883 in Krakow which was then part of the Kingdom of Galicia and Lodomeria, also known as Austrian Poland. He migrated with his family to the US in 1887 and he later studied and learned about art at the Art Students League of New York. He eventually got a job at the Brooklyn Daily Eagle, a newspaper, working as an errand boy before eventually becoming a cartoonist for them. He met fellow cartoonist John Randolph Bray while working there and later worked with him at Paramount to produce animation.

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The Strange Career Of Director Uwe Boll

Published September 26, 2022

I can remember quite vividly that, while I was in secondary school, I wanted to see some good video game movie adaptations, something which was and still is quite difficult, and I quickly ran into a name that I was told time and time again to avoid, Uwe Boll. Sometimes called “the world’s worst director“, I thought it may be interesting to take a look at Uwe Boll and his strange career.

Uwe Boll was born in the West German city of Wermelskirchen on June 22nd, 1965 and later attended the universities of Cologne and Siegen. I was also surprised to learn that Uwe Boll has a PHD with his thesis being the popularity of genre stories in 18th century Germany.

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What Exactly Is The Japanese Era System?

Published September 22, 2022

When I talk about Japanese media, I have on occasion mentioned Japanese era names such as Showa, Heisei and Reiwa. Specific times that I recall mentioning them are when I discussed the Godzilla franchise and when I touched on Shigeru Mizuki’s manga “Showa: A History of Japan” but there may’ve be other times I cannot recall. Anyway, someone asked me the other day what I meant whenever I mentioned those names. Therefore, I thought it might be interesting to take a look at what exactly the Japanese era system is.

The first thing to realise is that this system works very differently from the calendar system we’re familiar with, the Gregorian calendar, in that the years aren’t counted continuously and instead restarts at the beginning of each era. This system was originally imported from China around 645 CE and, barring a few periods of disuse, has been continuously used in Japan since then.

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Bad Horror Movies That I Really Love To Watch

Published September 1, 2022

It may seem strange to some people but there is an undeniable joy in watching films that are “so bad, it’s good”. Popular examples of these bad but enjoyable films would be The Room, Sharknado, the movies of Ed Wood etc. Since I’ve begun watching horror films again, particularly since I started watching whole franchises, I’ve come across several films that, while bad in their own way, are nonetheless enjoyable, particularly with friends. Given that, I thought it might be interesting to share some of the bad horror movies that I’ve seen that I really love to watch.

The genesis of this idea started when I was watching The Texas Chainsaw Massacre films and saw Texas Chainsaw Massacre: The Next Generation. The movie is appallingly bad and is often listed by Texas Chainsaw Massacre fans as being the worst film in the franchise. While I do believe that, objectively speaking, it is the worst film in the franchise, it transcends into the territory of being so bad that it’s good. The writing is so bizarre that you find yourself constantly surprised and laughing at the character interactions whether they be the family or the protagonists. The so-called scenes of horror are also particularly funny with one scene halfway through the film sending me into hysterics because of how poorly executed it was. While it is a terrible film, it’s one that I end up enjoying every time I see it, whether that be by myself or with others who are experiencing it for the first time.

The poster for Texas Chainsaw Massacre: The Next Generation.

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How My Interest In Disturbing Films Waxed And Waned

Published August 25, 2022

I think it’s fair to say that, whenever you begin exploring a new genre or medium, that you are going to start with the surface level works that are popular and more mainstream friendly. I very much recall that being the case when I first discovered anime and manga and it also very much applied to when I first discovered horror. However, as you continue to work through a genre or medium, you eventually find yourself looking for something else. Whether that be works that are more intellectually stimulating or are simply more graphic or challenging in the content that they depict, I think this is a common occurrence for fans of creative media. Having experienced something similar to this recently, I wanted to share the story of how I developed an interest in disturbing films that first waxed but later waned and how this helped illuminate what I was truly searching for.

To begin, I should first describe how I developed this interest in the first place. Having recently rediscovered my love for horror films, I quickly ended up searching for newer horror films that had been released while also looking for horror classics that I had missed. Part of this search led me to discover the films of the New French Extremity, French films that are deliberately transgressive and, while I have not enjoyed all of them, some of these films have been a truly incredible experience for me. Similarly, I discovered Cannibal Holocaust, a film that I had heard plenty about but had never seen until relatively recently. While not everything in that film is great, I was blown away by how the second half of the film changes your perception of the first half and how forward thinking the underlying message was. Having seen these films that some would consider “Extreme”, I was very curious to see more.

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